SIXTIES STUDENTS Simon Fraser (4): The Student Power Council Wins Parity
On May 30 1968, Simon Fraser students elected an openly left-wing student power slate to most of the seats in the Summer 1968 Student Council. The radical Council was thrust immediately into a mass mobilization of the student body, to raise eight demands for a full-scale democratization of the University (by rewriting the provincial Universities Act) and to vote for a student body moratorium on classes. They did this to support faculty who were seeing signs of a politicially-motivated purge of ‘troublemaker’ professors. They backed the demand of the left-led Faculty Union for Board acceptance of an Academic Freedom and Tenure brief.
SIXTIES STUDENTS Simon Fraser (3): The Board Walk-In
On March 1 1968, a delegation of students elected earlier that day at a general student body meeting ‘walked in’ to a closed Board meeting. They presented two briefs and a petition that all future Board meetings be open. Most of the students did not trust that fair decisions would be made behind closed doors. Many were worried that purges of faculty who were left-wing, or just different, were underway.
SIXTIES STUDENTS Simon Fraser (2): The TA Incident
On March 17 1967, SFU Student Council voted to strike to demand that the Board reinstate Teaching Assistants, who had been fired for organizing a political protest outside a local high school off campus. They won active and visible faculty support, and the Board reversed its decision..
SIXTIES STUDENTS Simon Fraser (1) Experimental University
Simon Fraser University opened in September 1965 as an ‘experimental university’ on the working class east side of Greater Vancouver on Canada’s west coast. The first major left-leaning protests were directed at the SFU Board’s decision to grant a private corporation (Shell) exclusive rights to an on-campus gas station, as a reward for donations that helped finance a men’s residence.
